Iowa: 21% funding cut, 60% more students

State funding for Iowa’s community colleges dropped by 21 percent while enrollment increased by 60 percent, reports the Des Moines Register, citing a report by the Iowa Fiscal Partnership. From 2001 to 2012, colleges survived by raising tuition. Inflation-adjusted tuition has increased by more than half, according to the report. “In 2000, an Iowan earning the statewide weekly average wage could have paid for a year of community college tuition in about 3 1/2 weeks. But in 2011, an Iowan earning the statewide weekly average wage would have needed to work nearly 5 1/2 weeks to cover tuition.”